Scranton plans to buy for $1.85 million the Fidelity Bank branch on North Washington Avenue for an annex to City Hall next door, officials said this week.
Scranton City Council expects to vote Tuesday on a resolution from Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti’s administration to approve a purchase agreement.
In recent years, the Cognetti administration has eyed the three-story Fidelity bank branch at 338 N. Washington Ave. as a potential annex to the historic 1888 City Hall municipal building at 340 N. Washington Ave. The city has earmarked $1.85 million in the city’s capital budget to buy the bank branch building next City Hall, city Business Administrator Eileen Cipriani said Friday.
The Fideilty Bank building at 338 N. Washington Ave. in Scranton on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Opportunity arises
Fidelity Bank’s conversion of the Scranton Electric Building at 507 Linden St. into a headquarters, which has completion expected in April, will result in the Fidelity branch at 338 N. Washington Ave. vacated and sold.
Titled the Scranton Financial Center Branch, this Fidelity location’s services include night deposits, ATM, coin machine, checking, savings, mortgage programs, home equity lines of credit, business and online banking and lobby service, according to Fidelity’s website. The bank branch on North Washington Avenue will remain open until Fidelity completes its new bank headquarters at the Scranton Electric Building, an eight-story landmark topped with the iconic “Scranton, The Electric City.”
The city intends to make the bank branch into a “Public Service Facility” for functions that require frequent transactions with the public, such as permits and code enforcement; as well as for a police department “Real Time Crime Center” facility, the mayor and city Police Chief Thomas Carroll told council Tuesday during a caucus, according to an Electric City Television simulcast and recording of the meeting posted on YouTube.
With a street-level first floor, the bank branch is more readily disabled-accessible for public interaction than City Hall next door, and the bank branch also comes with 35 parking spaces for use by city employees, the mayor said.
“We have the opportunity to purchase the Fidelity building next door,” Cognetti told council. “The ease of access of that teller area on the first floor I think would be a tremendous gift to all of us in the city, to anybody who’s pursuing a permit or any sort of code enforcement help. Being able to have that accessible first floor I think would be really, really helpful to them.”
City Hall, which just underwent renovations, has large hallways that reduce available space for offices, the mayor said.
“We have the financial means to do it now (buy the bank branch) and we know this building (City Hall) is somewhere we want to stay. We also want to make sure we have a modern building next door, given this opportunity, so that we can expand,” Cognetti said. “It would be really important for us to purchase that building for a host of reasons. It’s also one of those opportunities that will never come again.”
Carroll described a real-time crime center in a City Hall annex as a “decentralized component” of police department facilities. Decentralization would involve moving administrative offices from police headquarters at 100 S. Washington Ave. to a real time crime center in a City Hall annex, using the current police headquarters as operations and investigations center; and using for training the Serrenti Center in the Hill Section that the city acquired several years ago.
“To optimize space will enhance our operations,” Carroll said of adding a City Hall annex. “To have this opportunity right now is a gold mine for us.”
The city also will seek a $500,000 state Local Share Account grant “to support the purchase and implementation of real-time crime technology equipment,” according to a resolution adopted by council this past Tuesday in a 4-0 vote, with council President Gerald Smurl, Mark McAndrew, Jessica Rothchild and Tom Schuster all in favor, and Bill King absent.
“This project will enhance public safety through advanced technology that improves situational awareness, emergency response, and coordination among law enforcement agencies,” according to a description in this LSA grant legislation. “Funding will support the purchase and installation of equipment such as real time monitoring systems, surveillance cameras, data management tools, and related infrastructure. These upgrades will strengthen the City’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to crime, ultimately promoting a safer community for Scranton residents and visitors.”
Annex purchase needs council approval
Meanwhile, council also deadlocked on a resolution to authorize up to $3 million in debt involving acquisition of the bank branch building, with Smurl and Rothchild voting yes to introduce this debt resolution and McAndrew and Schuster voting no. The resolution failed in the 2-2 tie vote.
The resolution would have authorized the city “to carry out a temporary borrowing to fund the purchase” of the Fidelity Bank branch next door to City Hall, “for the purpose of establishing an ADA-accessible Public Service Facility with a Real Time crime center,” a description with the legislation says. McAndrew and Schuster questioned the debt resolution. Council Solicitor Tom Gilbride said it would line up financing, and a companion piece of proposed legislation to authorize the sales agreement would be on the agenda for council’s Dec. 2 meeting. Schuster wondered if the legislation approving the purchase should have come before debt financing legislation.
But the city does not intend to borrow any money for the annex initiative, Cipriani said. The debt resolution possibly could come back before council for reconsideration, but even it doesn’t, the city still intends to buy the bank branch building with the capital-budget funds already in place, she said.
The city’s financial consultant, a firm called PFM, recommended the debt legislation, to have it in place in case the city in the future might need such funding for renovations, she said. But the bank branch is in excellent condition and largely ready for city occupancy as an annex; and Fidelity also will leave behind office furniture there, Cipriani said.
“Right now, there’s no intention of taking out a loan. The building is turn-key,” Cipriani said. “It’s putting something in place, it’s good fiscal stewardship, in the event we need it in the future.”
The building formerly housed The Scranton Tribune and The Scrantonian.
The Fideilty Bank building at 338 N. Washington Ave. in Scranton on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)